Categories

Date

plant biology Articles

How does a complete plant with stems, leafs and flowers develop from a tiny clump of seemingly identical cells? For a very long time, the mechanism of tissue formation in plants remained unclear. The biochemists from Wageningen University also would not have come up with the answer if it wasn’t for their model building colleagues that simulated plant development with their mathematical ...

The soil, as the primary resource for food production and the most important tool for every farmer, is crucial for farming. Successful farming begins with the quality soil, which provides water and essential nutrients to the crops. Rich and healthy soil, combined with the appropriate amount of water and sunlight can significantly contribute to global food production. Proper soil management ...

Losses due to soilborne diseases on some greenhouse, nursery and vegetable crops can amount to thousands of dollars per acre annually. Until the 1930s, organic amendments — consisting of animal and green manures, coupled with crop rotation — were principal methods of control. But these approaches were largely abandoned for reasons of cost and inconvenience after commercial fertilizers and the ...

Is synthetic biology on its way to our farms, markets and tables? Thousands of researchers will descend on Boston this fall for an event billed as the world’s largest gathering of synthetic biologists. The field is evolving so rapidly that even scientists working in it ...

Parasitic and pathogenic lifestyles have evolved repeatedly in eukaryotes (93). Several parasitic eukaryotes represent deep phylogenetic lineages, suggesting that they feature unique molecular processes for infecting their hosts. One such group is formed by the oomycetes. Traditionally, due to their filamentous growth habit, oomycetes have been classified in the kingdom Fungi. However, modern ...

Quantifying the characteristics of hormesis provides valuable insights into this low‐dose phenomenon and helps to display and capture its variability. A prerequisite to do so is a statistical procedure allowing to quantify general hormetic features, namely the maximum stimulatory response, the ‘dose range of hormesis’, and the distance from the maximum stimulation to the dose where hormesis ...

MicroRNAs are recently discovered small regulatory molecules that control messenger RNA (mRNA) translation in plants and animals and have been implicated in a variety of hormone‐related physiological pathways. Estrogens, thyroid hormones, and gonadotropins all are known to act on miRNA abundance to cause major shifts in cellular activity, physiology, and homeostatic control mechanisms. ...

The current debate on the release of genetically modified organisms to the environment must be informed by scientific data obtained from field studies. Many of the microorganisms that have potential applications outside the laboratory, especially in agriculture and horticulture, could be improved by genetic modification. Rhizobia, the bacteria that form N2-fixing symbioses with leguminous plants, ...

The novel idea of using rotifers Lecane inermis (Rotifera, Monogononta) as a tool to overcome activated sludge bulking generates an on-going need to study rotifer biology. The results of biological research on rotifers can serve to improve the method so that it can be most effective when applied in treatment plants. The aim of this study was to test the effect of temperature on four selected ...

It may be a win-win situation: treating seeds with commercially available growth promoters before planting could have the added benefit of attracting parasitic wasps that feed on caterpillar pests, suggests a study. The protective effect of these cheap, commercially available chemicals, known as ‘plant strengtheners’, can help protect young ...

Biopesticides deserve respect. Once derided as snake oil, today’s products have proven benefits in suppressing pest organisms. Whether they activate plant defenses, parasitize or inhibit pathogen growth or make the environment less favourable to disease, they can play an integral role in crop protection. While the greenhouse sector first excelled at incorporating biopesticides in controlled ...

The success of a garden or crops is directly affected by the health of the soil ecosystem, creating a bounty of delicious vegetables and beautiful flowers. For true sustainability, maximum nutrition and amazing flavor, organic fertilizers and black worm castings are the the answer. How to Create Healthy Soil? Don’t use synthetic fertilizer or harmful chemicals. “When ...

A research group from Michigan State University (Department of Plant Biology) is using the UniSpec-DC to analyze biomass dynamics and changes in species composition across a California grassland system, as they relate to management techniques including prescribed burning, prescribed grazing, and reseeding of native grasses. They are interested in enhancing the understanding of grassland dynamics ...

Filamentous fungi are a large and evolutionarily successful group of organisms of enormous ecological importance (27, 114). Fungi also have a considerable impact on our economy because they serve as bio-factories for the industrial production of proteins (90, 130) and because many fungi are human and plant pathogens that pose a threat to public health and agriculture (1, 105, 124). The basic ...

There’s no question that plants are better than most other life forms at converting carbon dioxide and sunlight into the sugars that form the basis of our global food web — and eventually, humans’ entire food supply. But fact of the matter is, with conversion rates hovering around 2 percent for our best crop fields, they’re by no means great. Even a slight increase in the ...

Plants can dispose of organs such as leaves and recycle the nutrients in these organs into new leaves, seeds, or storage organs. However, when separated from its photosystem proteins, chlorophyll can be phototoxic, absorbing light and producing high-energy electrons. The complex chlorophyll degradation pathway solves this problem by breaking down chlorophyll into colorless catabolites that are ...

Crop Response Extractability, plant yield and toxicity thresholds for boron in compost Investigators: William F. Brinton and Eric Evans, Woods End Research Laboratory, Inc., Mt. Vernon, Maine Objectives: To determine the quantity of total and water-soluble boron in compost and other sources and their relationship to plant performance and toxicity symptoms; and to establish toxicity thresholds ...

“A Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt. We have learned some harsh lessons about how to treat our soil. While most of us are aware of the problems of the past, some agricultural operations in the world are not heeding those lessons. We all know that healthy soil is essential to feed the ever-increasing ...

Conference presentation at IRAN BIOTECH 2015 (Teheran) Abstract Iran ranks seventh in the world for kiwi production, with over 3200 MT produced in 2012. Kiwifruit can be stored for over 6 months under appropriate conditions, but fruit softening and fruit rots (Botrytis cinerea) can cause severe losses during cold storage, transit, distribution and retail. ...

In the great book-keeping of climate change, scientists have just discovered a big mistake. They have been wrong, they now think, to count on the mountains, the plains, the forests and the grasslands as an agency that slows climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. It does absorb carbon dioxide. But the chilling news is that ...